Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 10.djvu/230

220 wife was a granddaughter of Mr. Whitehouse, responded to my letter. Mr. Whitehouse died October 27, 1866, aged one hundred years, six months, and seventeen days. He was living, when quite a small boy, in the old Livius house when it was burned. The house of Mr. Hodgdon was afterwards burned, which contained many valuable historical manuscripts from Mr. Whitehouse. Unless a copy of the Wolfeborough paper can be found, we are not likely to know any more of the old Judge Livius premises.

The visitors to the White Mountains, especially those who have been on the east side, to the Glen, have heard of, and very likely driven through, the Pinkham woods, or Notch.

This road, which extends from Jackson to Randolph, a distance of twelve miles, was constructed through the wilderness, between two ranges of the White Mountains, by Daniel Pinkham, a resident of Jackson. It was commenced in 1824, and two years were required to complete it. Before the construction of this road the people of Jackson were in a measure isolated from the rest of the world, having no public road through the town. Mr. Pinkham made a contract with the state to build a good carriage road through this unbroken forest of heavy growth, along side-hills, and across rapid streams; for this work he was to receive from the state a quitclaim deed to a tract of land one half mile wide on each side of the road, from the Jackson line, to Gorham, and all the state land in Jackson. At that time the White Mountains were just beginning to attract visitors. Mr. Pinkham believed that this road would become the great highway for mountain travellers, and that the land in that locality would become greatly increased in value; that the forest would disappear before the axe of the new settler, and the wilderness be transformed into productive farms. He also thought that a carriage-road would be built from the present site of the Glen House to the summit of Mt. Washington.

Mr. Pinkham lived to see this part of his prophecy fulfilled; but it is more than sixty years since this road was completed, and the primeval forest still borders it on either side, as it did in 1824.

The Notch, or narrowest part of the road, is just at the Glen Ellis falls, where the mountains are not more than a quarter of a mile apart. The slope of the mountains is gradual, and there is not any of the grandeur of the White or Franconia Notches; but yet it is a beautiful and picturesque place, and well worth a visit.

On the fourth of July, 1826, before a road had been made to the top of Mt. Wasliington from this side, Mr.